Tuesday, 23 May 2017

Long Weekend Recap

In which we spend the entire weekend loving life at the barn, and discover my phone camera is actually incapable of taking a decent picture.

It's a picture of us! Sort of...

I was having a slight pity party for myself last week, as pretty much everyone else in the barn was headed to Mustang Powder/Chase Creek for their back to back horse trials. Essentially, 2 events run back to back over 4 days. The idea might sound a little weird for those of you with a regular event calendar, but given the distances we travel to show, the chance to compete twice in one trip actually makes a lot of sense here. I was having a bit of a pity party because:

1. The event only offers divisions at Entry (I think that equates to somewhere around US Novice level) and above. I'm pretty much the only person in the barn not yet competing at that level. Go, me.

2. Barn rates are going up, making me reconsider whether I could afford to attend such events anyway. My spending priority in attempting to be a better rider remains lessons > than competitions. But competitions are such a fun thing to go to with my barn :(

Fuzzy pics > no pics. We jumped Saturday and it was fun :)

Anyway, I showed up to feed the horses Friday morning and it took me all of 5 minutes to realize I was more than happy to be home with the horses. There's nothing better than a nice quiet morning at the barn, particularly when the sun is shining! Our barn is so busy and competitive that it's easy to get a bit caught up in it all. This weekend of being there early to feed and having the place pretty much to myself was a great reminder of where I find the most joy in this whole crazy horse thing. I'm happiest when I'm more involved in their day to day care, when I have a nice quiet arena to ride in, and very little in the way of a schedule to follow. Don't get me wrong, I love the lessons and chance to compete too, but not on the same level as the rest of it. I'm very driven to always be better as a rider and horseperson, so the lessons and competitions are more the means to that end rather than my reason for owning a horse :)

We dressaged a little on Sunday, also fun.

This weekend, I was on a mission to get tons of media. And...I did. However, the vast majority of it stinks. I set up my phone and tablet cameras in hopes of getting video, and back up video. Video #1 deleted itself before I could even watch it. Video #2 was not at the best angle, and was fuzzy and grainy despite my setting it to max resolution, and 'sport' mode. No problem, though, because G stopped by to say hi on Sunday, so I put him to work taking actual pics. But, I forgot that he's the worst at taking pictures. I love him, and love that he tried, but yeah, fuzzy zoomed in pics of our (large) bottoms are not being posted here. Also, it seems even a beautiful sunny day is not enough to make either camera take overly clear images. I've been cursing the lighting all winter, seems the issue is actually the iPhone and Galaxy tablet cameras are not up to the task of taking pictures of moving objects. I know what I'm asking for for my birthday! Until then, I've got 100 or so not so good pictures from this weekend. And, fair warning, I plan to use them here until a new camera finds its way to me.

8 comments

I love all the media !!! B looks so cute over that fence!!!!! Also yea. There is definitely something to be said for quiet mornings at the barn. I've been feeling very compelled and motivated to attend all these events. But honestly? I'm pooped. Definitely looking forward to some quiet time!

I'm so glad you had a good weekend. I too was feeling a bit sorry for myself when everyone hauled out to Chase but sometimes it's nice to have a down weekend. (Entry is closest to Beginner Novice in the States, but Chase is basically the Entry Olympics)

Ohh, they can be ridiculous. I've just been doing chores long enough there that they're finally all well aware I'm the bitchy lady you don't want to mess with. Apparently since I started I have learned a pretty legit mare glare of my own lol